Review: Life

Stop us if you have heard this one; the irresponsible curiosity of a team of humans isolated in space results in an alien organism gruesomely murdering everyone. Avoiding comparisons between Life and Alien is next to impossible, being that the plot of Life, directed by Daniel Espinosa and starring Ryan Reynolds, Jake Gyllenaal and Rebecca Ferguson, is essentially the same as the plot of Ridley Scott’s masterpiece (with Alien: Resurrection’s end game). But that’s the risk you take when you decide to swim in a pond with a franchise that perfected the genre on its first go.

The film gets a number of things right. Some clever cinematography immerses you in the zero gravity environment, with the constantly rotating orientation making you feel as if there is no real up or down. The characters glide through the station in a realistic fashion, narrowly avoiding each other in the cramped tunnels and tubes that connect the station’s various sections. A lot of effort has clearly gone into making the orbital environment as faithful as possible to the conditions experienced by real astronauts. The minimal cast does an admirable job selling the environment, and the close comradry that exists between the crew. Reynolds is his usually affable self as the engineer Rory, and Ferguson is perfectly cast as the team leader and concerned matriarch, Dr Miranda North. However, Life’s uneven pacing soon gets in the way of commendable groundwork.

Within the opening half-hour, most of the crew is given some back-story to heighten the emotional impact of the events to come. Gyllenhaal’s David is a recluse, who prefers the solitude of space to the meanness of society. Ariyon Bakare’s Hugh, a biologist who has lost the use of his legs, has found the freedom to prove himself through his work in a zero-gravity environment. Hiroyuki Sanada’s Sho watches on a hand-held display as his wife gives birth to their daughter. But there is no time to explore these character details.

The Martian life-form evolves at an unlikely pace, going from petri-dish blob to shiv-fashioning killer star-fish in unbelievably quick time. Far from being scary, its initial murderous foray is borderline hilarious. There’s a sudden swerve to make the creature seem menacing, but at that point it is already too late, with the alien becoming comically over-powered. The assertions that it needs oxygen to survive, which provide the crew hope of eliminating it, lack any credibility when you have watched it happily zoom about the exterior of the station in a freezing cold vacuum. The idea is that the crew must kill it in orbit, because they can’t risk the Martian getting to the planet’s surface. But if the crew believe the thing can survive re-entry in a disintegrating space station, then why do they think they have any hope of killing it at all?

The combination of horrible pacing, senseless plot and a creature that amounts to little more than Flubber with evil intent, torpedoes any chance Life had of standing out. A talented cast have no room to explore their characters, and a setting that should have been the perfect medium for tension drenched horror is wasted. What we are left with is a film that relies on star power and cheap scares to justify its existence, and it fails. It is a wasted chance to put a fresh spin on a tested concept. It is a film with nothing to say.

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Gaelcon, Ireland's Premier Games Convention, takes over the Ballsbridge Hotel from October 27th-30th for another full weekend of gaming goodness. Featuring everything from RPGs and LARPs to War Games and

Event Details

Gaelcon, Ireland’s Premier Games Convention, takes over the Ballsbridge Hotel from October 27th-30th for another full weekend of gaming goodness. Featuring everything from RPGs and LARPs to War Games and Board Games there’s sure to be something for everyone at this years convention.

Both Warhammer 40k and Warhammer Heresy will feature over the weekend, while a full timetable for RPGs and LARPs can be found at www.gaelcon.com.

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You and up to three friends will band together to take on our weird and wacky array of photo-challenges as you scramble across the city on a strange sightseeing tour

Event Details

You and up to three friends will band together to take on our weird and wacky array of photo-challenges as you scramble across the city on a strange sightseeing tour of Dublin’s oft-overlooked marvels.

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RAID 2018 is a gaming event, by gamers, for gamers. Offering BYOC LAN tournaments, video game concerts, talks from industry professionals and much more, we're banking on this being the best

Event Details

RAID 2018 is a gaming event, by gamers, for gamers. Offering BYOC LAN tournaments, video game concerts, talks from industry professionals and much more, we’re banking on this being the best gaming event in Ireland during 2018!

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Event Details

RAID 2018 is a gaming event, by gamers, for gamers. Offering BYOC LAN tournaments, video game concerts, talks from industry professionals and much more, we're banking on this being the best

Event Details

RAID 2018 is a gaming event, by gamers, for gamers. Offering BYOC LAN tournaments, video game concerts, talks from industry professionals and much more, we’re banking on this being the best gaming event in Ireland during 2018!